Ed Miliband’s plans for a mansion tax on expensive homes will cost little more than a slap-up lunch, Lord Kinnock has said. The former Labour leader’s comments came after several of the party’s MPs raised concerns about the proposed levy on homes worth more than £2 million, warning that it would

A former Labour candidate who was caught up in the Falkirk vote-rigging row is considering standing again to become an MP. Karie Murphy, who is backed by the Unite union, quit as Labour’s candidate for the seat in 2013 after internal allegations that her union had tried to manipulate the party’s

Ed Miliband cannot hope to compete with Barack Obama, according to the US president’s former strategist, who has been drafted in to advise Labour. David Axelrod, whose consultancy firm is paid a six-figure sum by Labour, said that he could not think of any politician who matched up to “once in a

British workers must try to emulate their “more productive” counterparts in France, a senior Labour figure has warned. Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, said that French workers were doing as much work in four days as their British equivalents managed in a week. The comment comes

The total amount of income tax paid by people earning more than £150,000 has increased by more than £8 billion since the 50p rate was cut, official figures have revealed. In figures that will be used by George Osborne to prove the wealthy are paying a fair share, it also emerged that the top 1 per

Ed Miliband was condemned yesterday for refusing to speak out about phone hacking at the Daily Mirror after the newspaper’s owner published an open apology to victims confirming that the illegal practice took place at the group. In the apology printed on page 2 of yesterday’s Daily Mirror, Trinity

A senior member of Ed Miliband’s team has been criticised after comparing the row over tax avoidance by a Tory peer with the phone-hacking scandal and the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. The aide compared the party’s battle with Lord Fink with the way in which the involvement of the schoolgirl

Everyone avoids tax, a major Tory donor declared yesterday as he backed down in his high-stakes row with Ed Miliband. Lord Fink, a former Conservative party treasurer, retracted a threat to sue the Labour leader over accusations that he avoided tax after admitting to “vanilla” measures to reduce

Ed Miliband will attempt to rekindle one of Tony Blair’s most popular school reforms today with a pledge to clamp down on growing class sizes. The Labour leader promises to tighten the ban on infants being taught in classes of more than 30 pupils, saying the number in classes larger than that has

A leading New Labour donor is to fund the party’s fightback in Scotland as it attempts to avoid losing dozens of crucial seats to the SNP. Sir David Garrard, who was embroiled in a “cash for honours” scandal under the previous government, is preparing to make a big donation to Jim Murphy in coming